Guidelines for Automated Tester

·         Concise: As simple as possible.

·         Self-Checking: Test reports its own results; needs no human interpretation.

·         Repeatable: Test can be run many times in a row without human intervention.

·         Robust: Test produces same result now and forever. Tests are not affected by changes in the external environment.

·         Sufficient: Tests verify all the requirements of the software being tested.

·         Necessary: Everything in each test contributes to the specification of desired behavior.

·         Clear: Every statement is easy to understand.

·         Efficient: Tests run in a reasonable amount of time.

·         Specific: Each test failure points to a specific piece of broken functionality; unit test failures provide "defect triangulation".

·         Independent: Each test can be run by itself or in a suite with an arbitrary set of other tests in any order.

·         Maintainable: Tests should be easy to understand and modify and extend.

·         Traceable: To and from the code it tests and to and from the requirements.